Leave the gags at home on April Fools' Day, employers say. / Viktor Budnik

by Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY

by Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY

OK, Monday is April Fools' Day, but think twice before you celebrate at work.

Career advisers recommend that pranksters keep the jokes at home.

Sixty-eight% of advertising and marketing executives consider April Fools' pranks unsuitable for the office, according to a 2010 survey national study by The Creative Group, a recruitment firm.

Only 3% found pranks "very appropriate."

"I don't see a place for April Fools' pranks in the workplace. It's counter to professionalism," says Kenna Griffin, author of a media career advice blog. "The payoff of the joke is not great enough for the potential consequence: putting future employment at risk, offending a boss or losing a positive reference."

"We don't consider April Fools' jokes to be very funny," Tom Kent, standards editor for the Associated Press, told Business Wire, a news distributor.

"We have a responsibility to get the facts right. We don't think our vigilance and standards should be suspended on April 1st."

Miriam Salpeter, a job search consultant in Atlanta, says it's safest to steer clear of pranks at work, but she offers some advice for the insistent joker to make sure a prank doesn't turn into a nightmare.

"If you do decide to pull a prank, don't be a bully. Don't do anything that could seem mean or offensive," Salpeter says. "Don't tell someone that a major meeting was canceled or change a slide on an important PowerPoint (presentation). That's not funny.

"Make it something you know the person will laugh at," she says. "Fill their room with balloons or put jellybeans in their drawer. At the end, you want them to say, 'Good one.' "

It's important to understand the culture of your workplace before pulling a prank of any kind, she says.

"Banking, finance, insurance - these are places where, likely, a prank isn't appropriate," she says. "But if you work in a start-up with a bunch of people who are always having fun, it might be different."

Brian Tucker, 41, of Augusta, Ga., works for a cable provider. He says people there pull pranks on each other all the time.

"It's what gets us through our days sometimes - not just on April Fools' Day," he says.

One year, his boss tricked him into believing he was fired.

"It got to the point where I took my keys and was leaving the building," Tucker says.

"My managers, coworkers, everyone was in on it. My heart was about to pop out of my shirt, but it was just a lot of fun."